How to Decorate a Cake With an Icing Syringe

Written by michael roennevig| 13/05/2017

Use an icing syringe to add beautiful decorations to your cake. (Creatas/Creatas/Getty Images)

Decorating with an icing syringe adds a delightful and festive finishing touch to your cake, especially if you're holding a children's party or donating your cake to a charity bake sale. You can also have lots of fun coming up with ideas for your cake decorations. If you're looking after a group of children during the school holidays, ask them to help you brighten up your cakes by adding their own designs to them.

Draw some ideas for your decorations on paper before you start using the icing syringe on your cakes. Bear in mind the size of the cakes you've made and the limitations of the decorating tips that came with your icing syringe set. If your tips all have fairly large nozzles, make sure your designs aren't too intricate. Also, think about how you're going to incorporate different colours into your designs.

Remove the plunger from the top of the icing syringe. This will screw off on most models.

Spoon the first colour of icing mix you intend to use into the body of the syringe. Push the icing down to the bottom of the syringe near to the outlet but be careful not to apply so much pressure that the icing mix starts to come out the other end.

Screw on a decorating tip to the bottom of the syringe. Then, extend the plunger to its full reach and secure to the top of the syringe body.

Position the decorating tip over the part of the cake and push down gently on the syringe plunger using your fingers. Some icing syringes will have a trigger system as opposed to a plunger.

Use a spatula to distribute the icing over your cakes if you want to cover large areas with one colour.

Tip

Empty the syringe of icing and wash thoroughly before adding a new colour of icing. Add more water or icing sugar to your icing if your mix is too thick or thin. You can also use melted chocolate in an icing syringe. Practice writing with your icing syringe on a plate or chopping board to build precision.

Tips and warnings

Empty the syringe of icing and wash thoroughly before adding a new colour of icing.

Add more water or icing sugar to your icing if your mix is too thick or thin.

You can also use melted chocolate in an icing syringe.

Practice writing with your icing syringe on a plate or chopping board to build precision.